There's been some pretty intense spinning going on following the VP debate on the part of Republican operatives on the internet, and there is no question that both candidates misspoke at times. This Washington Post VP debate fact-check accounting shows Palin and Biden's as about even on the misspeak scale, but that isn't stopping the more rabid of the right from doing some heavily partisan oral foaming, pointing out Biden's oops and conveniently ignoring Palin's wrongs.
As to who "won" the debate, the partisan rantings are about what you'd expect, but the real polls are showing that the number of independents choosing Sen. Joe. Biden as the winner of last Thursday's debate over Gov. Sarah Palin is nothing less than stunning. In fact a real-time poll sampling over 1000 debate viewer reactions found Independent voters swarming for Biden 3-1 or more.
Across the board, on question after question, Independent voters chose Biden as their overwhelming choice. The ratio of independents choosing Biden over Palin averages 2-1 in Biden's favor -- approx. 65% Biden - 35% Palin, but on two key issues - "VP responsibilities" and "Taxes," Independents preferred Biden's responses over Palin's by a remarkable 3-1 ratio.
Graphic below the fold:
Our Media Curves research friends got real-time responses from more than a thousand self-identified Democrats, Republicans and independents last night during the vice presidential debate between Sen. Joe Biden an Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.The respondents responding by cell-phone in real-time indicated that Biden won on the issues that were tested with the all important independent group time and again. Here are some of the results.
Stunning. Where Biden's mission was to do no harm to Obama, clearly he's helped the ticket considerably - or Sarah failed miserably among independents -- or some combination of the two. I'm hardly independent; I've been a fan of Biden's for some time now, and my own personal opinion is that Biden succeeded to a greater extent than Palin failed.
The results in the graphic above are those featured on the WaPo "Swamp" blog. Additional issues and relative percentages can be found at the Media Curves website.
Related: Vice-President Biden vs. Cheerleader Palin (debate review)
Comments (5)
As I wrote elsewhere (the other Wizbang) --
JOE BIDEN'S BIGGEST MISTAKE:
At some point during the debate (and there were opportunities) Senator Biden should have declared: "Yes we know, Governor Palin, that you're striving oh so hard to establish yourself as a belligerent badass worthy of being Dick Cheney's heir, all in order to impress the Republican Base. I've even heard comments from your supporters that when Sarah Palin shoots you in the face, she was aiming for it, as if to say Dick Cheney wasn't. How utterly pathetic and disrespectful! Well, Governor, for decades I've known Dick Cheney, Dick Cheney's an enemy of mine, and, Governor,
YOU'RE NO DICK CHENEY!!!"
"Get that? Got that? Good."
1. Posted by Herman | October 3, 2008 8:47 PM
Posted on October 3, 2008 20:47
You're a hoot, Herman.
2. Posted by Lee Ward![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangblue.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| October 3, 2008 9:54 PM
Posted on October 3, 2008 21:54
As much as I hope poll results look like these, I wouldn't take too much credence in a phone in vote. Too likely to be skewed. Think we should wait for the real polls.
3. Posted by mjtimber | October 3, 2008 11:04 PM
Posted on October 3, 2008 23:04
I agree that polls confirm other polls. You can throw this away as an outlier if other polls suggest independents feel differently than what's expressed here.
Ignoring the absolute numbers, the relative strengths are probably more relevant. This poll suggested that Biden did really well on the subject of taxes.
I suspect that was indeed a strong poin for Biden last night because we saw McCain come out on the attack today -- attacking Obama on taxes.
And that also highlights a difference between Obama and McCain now and going forward. I suspect we'll see Obama keying off of current events -- as he did today on the economy and unemployment numbers -- and we'll see McCain dredging up history -- Obama's liberal record, Rezko, Ayers, etc...
And that was one of Sarah biggest sighs during the debate --
Look for McCain Palin to be looking backwards and ignoring current events like bad news unemployment numbers, while Obama stays in the present with current events and talks about the future.
What we'll see in the coming days is McCain ceding the present and future, and launching an attack on Obama's character, drawing dark shadows that lead back to Rezko and Ayers, Rev Wright, etc.
It's all McCain has left.
4. Posted by Lee Ward![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangblue.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| October 4, 2008 12:45 AM
Posted on October 4, 2008 00:45
Yeah this is pure crap. Must be getting your info from CNN and other liberal outlets. Sarah kicked butt in the debate. Get over it.
5. Posted by H | October 6, 2008 6:51 PM
Posted on October 6, 2008 18:51